The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-10-21
The TREASURY STATEMENT.

THE TREASURY STATEMENT.
EDITOR BULLETIN: The Treasury
statement for the last September
quarter has been published, and the
official paper "goes into ecstacies"
over it as most unusual perform
ance. Its chief merit, as gathered
from "the organ" is that by this
publication "the people are accorded
the right, hitherto in large measure
denied them, of being informed
'how the money goes" There is
some force in this remark, because
during the late Gibsonian period
the law was ignored, and the publ
cation of the usual quarterly state
ments of receipts and expenditures
was neglected, or rather prevented,
by the Premier, who virtually con-
stituted the Cabinet.
There is another merit in the pre-
sent statement which should be re-
cognized. 1t is fuller, and gives
more details than it had been the
custom to furnish in quarterly
abstracts from the Treasury books.
This is an innovation to be COM
mended; but when this has been
said ii must be added also that the
statement in other particulars is dis
appointing. 1t is wanting in the
very details which the taxpayers as
body are interested in knowing,
and does not proceed on the lines of
candour laid down in the "Interme-
date Report of the Minister of
Finance for fifteen months, April
|, 1886, to June 80, 1887" If it
had done so the comments following
would not have been written.
The taxpayers, for example, are
left in the dark sregarding the ex-
penditure of the Loan fund. In
the intermediate Report a separate
statement of the Loan fund is pre-
sented; in the quarterly statement
under review the Loan fund is
treated as ordinary revenue. This
is serious defect and tends to mis-
lead. 1t may not have been so in
tended but such is the fact. How
then can the Gazette" contend
that the people are informed show
the money goes" by this statement,
when revenue and loan are put into
hotch-potch and handled as from
common source of income and ex-
penditure? The taxpayers have a
right to know whether the Govern
ment has been paying current liabi-
lities out of loan, or whether the
revenue proper has been sufficient
for all ordinary purposes; they have
likewise the right to know whether
interest on the national debt has
been paid out of loan, or, as should
be the case, from the ordinary
revenue of the country. These
points cannot be determined from
the Treasury statement. The people
are left entirely in the dark to con-
lecture what they may; and as sus-
picion is an element in human nature
apt to be aroused by concealment,
the chances are that the worst con-
struction will be put upon it instead
of the best.
The public debt has been increas-
ed during the last vuarter by $751;
987.75, plus special loan of $685.
900, being the amount of taxes paid
in advance, and which of course will
be deducted from next years re-
ceipts, although it is not clear whe-
Their the law allows it. 1t is there
fore debt temporarily contracted
by the Treasury in anticipation of
revenue to stop some gap, and diff
fers only in form from the special
loans by WHICH the Gibson Admins
tration supplemented revenue, $780,
366.62 of which, with $7,356.74 in
terest, ultimately became part of
the bonded debt of the country.
Treating the tax advances therefore
as loan, the national debt has
been increased by $216, 987.75 dur
ing the three months ending Sep
TENDER 30th, 1887. This increase
Is made up as follows
Balance loan fund, July /,
1887. 43,S07 80
Bonds issued at par to
September 30, 1Ss7..... l2s,2C0 90
From Postal Savings
Bank. ............ 49,. 1880 36
Advance taxes. .......... $4,000 90
Total. ...,............ $216.9S7 Is
The Government insists upon
reating the Postal Savings Bank
und as ordinary revenue, although
II fact and in law it is a debt upon
which the Treasury covenant to pay
we per cent interest, with the fur
her drawback that postal savings
'ank deposits pay no taxes. 1t is
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